$10 million lost to Darebin residents and business by bad council decision

In a recent gob-smackingly stupid move, the council withdrew its support from a climate change alliance, and in so doing denied its own residents access to $10million of Commonwealth Government funding from the Low Income Energy Efficiency Program.
     Even more bizarrely, this move also locked out Darebin small business operators from access to this climate remediation fund.
     So who on council thought this was a good idea?
     Councillor Ben Morgan, supported by Mayor Steven Tsitas and Deputy Mayor Diana Asmar, along with Nick Katsis and Stanley Chiang, that’s who.

History of how a green council turned brown!

For many years the ALP controlled Darebin council. In 2008 the first non-ALP councilor, Green’s representative Trent McCarthy, was elected. He introduced a range of sustainability initiatives in response to climate change.  Progressive ALP councilors Gaetano Greco and Tim Laurence, along with independent ALP Vince Fontana, supported these initiatives.

     Until late 2011 Darebin council was at the forefront of action on global warming, adopting a net zero emissions target as part of a Community Climate Change Action Plan. Initially this was supported by Councillor Diana Asmar from the ALP right. However in December 2011 as a result of ALP factional re-alignment Diana changed her support to the ALP right voting block comprising Steven Tsitas, Nick Katsis, Stanley Chiang and Ben Morgan.
     This has resulted in this new voting block winding back the sustainability agenda. At a council meeting 21 Mat 2012 Ben Morgan moved a motion not to re-new membership of the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA). It was passed with support from Councillors Tsitas, Katsis, Chiang and Asmar.
     At the 4 June council meeting Trent McCarthy with support from Gaetano Greco moved a motion to renew NAGA membership, to be faced with a wall of silence from the ALP right – Morgan, Tsitas, Katsis, Chiang and Asmar.
     This action means that Darebin residents and small business owners will miss out on $1.5 million of Federal Government grants as part of the Low Income Energy Efficiency Program.